The return to Korea

I had a nice, relaxing trip home and came back to Korea for a second year. This was going to be my last year, but somewhere along the way, I got sidetracked.

My new boss picked me up at the airport. My new boss was an odd guy. I'm still a little pissed at him, but we'll get to that later. He filled the role of an ajeoshi quite well. Every time he spoke, he sounded like he was drunk (Although he supposedly never drank because it upset his stomache).

He had no problem insulting me or the other teachers on a regular basis, and he pathologically lied. He also did almost no work at all. His name was Tony.

So, during the long drive to my new home in the pleasant suburb of Bucheon, I had some odd, very uncomfortable conversations with Tony.

"Do you have a girlfriend?"
"No."
"You should get one. They are good for sex. If you don't have one it's ok though, there are many prostitutes near your house. They are also very good for sex."

When we arrived at my new apartment, it was pretty good although lacking any furnishings. I didn't really care too much though. It was in a good location, and it had plenty of space. I was also later reimbursed for the costs of the furnishings and he bought a bed. He wanted me to go to the school so I could go over my schedule and get some paperwork done, but I convinced him to give me a bit of time to take a shower, shave and change out of the clothes I had been wearing for about 24 hours.

When I came back home from work, I learned one of the very important lessons about Korea I was going to learn that year. When Koreans move out of an apartment, they leave a disgusting mess. I hadn't noticed it when I first came in because I just dropped my bags, went into the bathroom and took a shower in a half awake daze, but when I started unpacking, it was disgusting.

All of the cupboards were filled with rotting food. The apartment was covered in a layer of pubes and dust, and there were two open garbage bags filled to the brim with used feminine hygiene products. I had to run to Homeplus anyways to buy something to sleep on and a kettle for the next day, so I bought a ton of cleaning supplies.

I began cleaning, and although it wasn't what I would have liked to have been doing, it was rather easy to do in an empty apartment. Everything was going swimmingly until I got to the drain in the kitchen sink. I lifted up the food catcher thing so I could rinse it off, and it was filled with a green sludge the likes of which I had never smelled. I'm pretty sure that at some point, the sludge had been vegetables at some point, but it had been sitting in that drain for god knows how long, and when I lifted the food catcher thing up, I was hit by such a strong stench that I immediately threw up. I finished cleaning and doused the apartment with bleach just to be sure.

After cleaning, I went for a walk to check out my new neighborhood, and it was pretty good. There were tons of convenience stores and restaurants and businesses nearby, so I was pretty set. There were also tons and tons of Anmas, juicy bars and barber poles.